President Barack Obama gestures during a White House news conference on Wednesday, June …President Barack Obama, speaking at a White House news conference today, defended his decision to join international military operations in Libya, accusing lawmakers who have questioned the legality of the action of playing politics.
Obama stressed the limited nature of the U.S. military role in Libya--no ground forces would be deployed, he emphasized, and there have been no U.S. casualties. But he also seemed to expand from his original argument for the Libya action on purely humanitarian grounds; in today's remarks, he suggested that the NATO coalition now coordinating the action should seek to remove Muammar Gadhafi from power because of his brutal authoritarian track record, and his past sponsorship of terrorism.
After Osama bin Laden, Gadhafi is responsible for killing more Americans in terrorist attacks than any other figure, Obama said.
"A lot of this fuss is politics," Obama said from the White House East Room at his first news conference since March. "And if you look substantively at what we have done, we have done exactly what we said we would do. As a consequence, a guy who is a state sponsor of terrorist operations against the United States of America is pinned down and the noose is tightening around him." You can see a video of Obama's remarks at the conference after the jump below.
"We have not seen a single U.S. casualty," Obama said. "The operation is limited in both time and in scope. ... We have not put any boots on the ground."
In response to recent criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who say that the Libya action is in violation of the War Powers Act, Obama stressed that he had consulted with Congress repeatedly. Critics have contended that Obama breached the act by continuing military operations in Libya beyond 90 days without explicit congressional approval.
The House voted overwhelmingly last week against a resolution that would have approved U.S. participation in the NATO-led Libya no-fly zone. At the same time, the GOP-led House also voted against a separate resolution that would have defunded the Libya action, now entering its fourth month.
Meantime, Obama got a show of support from the Senate yesterday. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 14-5 yesterday to pass a bipartisan resolution approving the U.S. role in international Libya military operations for one year.
Four Republicans joined all the panel's Democratic members to vote in favor of the resolution, which was co-sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.).
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